“Nice to meet you. I’m Pascal, a newbie at Constel.”
Skyler looked at Pascal for a moment before raising a finger. He was pointing at Kora.
“The little rascal next to you.”
Then he snapped his finger.
“Hand her over. She’s material worthy of Indus.”
“Hooh?”
Pascal looked at Kora. Kora was making an arrogant expression and shaking her head.
Skyler, not caring, said,
“The White Tiger seal. A pure yet fierce and destructive force, combined with human intellect. It’s perfect. Ideal. Only such a person can become a perfect ‘soldier’.”
Pascal looked at Kora.
“What do you think?”
“Yes, yes?”
“Do you want to join Indus?”
Kora looked at Pascal with a shocked expression. It was a face that seemed to be asking him what he was talking about. Pascal chuckled.
“Just kidding.”
Even after Pascal said that, Kora’s expression didn’t change. This time, she looked like she wondered how he could make such a joke.
“How disappointing. It was a joke. I thought you were someone who could understand.”
“Liar. You knew I was joking.”
“Of course. Aren’t you the proud teacher of Constel? I heard that the teachers there are all men of faith and high calling. They wouldn’t just abandon their students.”
This time, Skyler praised Pascal again. There was not a hint of mockery in his tone.
“But let me say this.”
Skyler rummaged through the armor with his hand. When he took it out again, there was a small pouch in his hand.
Pascal looked at it with interest.
‘There shouldn’t be anything inside that armor. How can he take something out?’
Skyler said,
“If a student becomes a monster, shouldn’t they be executed? As a teacher of Constel.”
Whoosh-
As soon as Skyler finished speaking, he threw the pouch.
It was the powder that would eliminate Kora’s consciousness. If Pascal tried to deflect it, the powder would still get on Kora, and if he tried to catch it, the pouch would explode as it was.
‘So what will you do, teacher of Constel?’
Skyler stared at Pascal as if to test him.
For a brief moment, as the pouch flew, Kora tensed up, while Pascal still had a smile on his face.
When the pouch was just within reach.
“Huh?”
Pascal did nothing. Or so it seemed.
BAM!
The pouch exploded in mid-air.
But none of the powder touched Pascal or Kora. Whenever the powders got close, they’d scatter away in gentle, curved paths.
“……Aura!”
Skyler realized what it was and gasped in surprise.
At first, he thought it was a barrier made of magic. But there had been no preparation for that. He didn’t sense any incantations, chants, or trigger words.
“You spat out aura with your bare hands and used it as a shield!”
THUD! Skyler pulled out his sword from behind and stabbed it into the ground. Pascal’s eyes lit up with intrigue.
Then again, from behind his back, where there was nothing, a sword made of steel popped out. It couldn’t be that he created the sword the same way he created armor when he first appeared; there was no steel around.
“Impressive! I look forward to fighting you!”
“Haha, I don’t know what to do when I receive compliments from my enemy.”
Pascal also took out his sword. Kora retreated to the back understandingly.
Pascal pulled his sword backward. Swish! Aura surrounded his sword.
“Be careful. My sword can cut through ‘souls’.”
“That’s what I’ve been waiting for!”
Though the distance between them was still too far for their swords to reach each other,
the two swung their swords, and aura clashed in mid-air.
* * *
Meanwhile, I watched the situation from the cliff on the other side.
I could see Pascal confronting someone down the cliff.
‘Skyler.’
Indus’ team member, Skyler.
He is a ghost. A high-ranking one at that.
The ‘slevb’ I encountered in the dungeon was also a monster close to this side. However, slevb clearly remembered who she was and what she resented. That’s why she was strong.
‘Now Skyler has shown himself too.’
From Constel’s perspective, which needs to respond to Indus’s attack, the most important thing is where the members of Indus are located.
That’s why Osprey is blatantly floating in the air, and Isamaya is confronting Thomson after finding him.
Now the locations of Thomson and Skyler have been revealed, and Kraken is probably not here. As far as I know, Kraken is implementing plans in a completely different place right now.
‘The problem is Cain.’
In the game, teachers usually deal with Indus. From the player’s perspective, who plays Aster, it’s an event to check the strength of Constel’s teachers, especially Osprey’s strength.
Moreover, it’s much later than now, so the standard strategy is for Aster and his companions to grow individually and defeat the members of Indus together with the teachers.
Therefore, it’s not easy for the player to check all Indus members. While fighting one member, another member is already fighting. There are many cases where you know the face but not the abilities, and sometimes you only know the name without knowing the face at all.
‘But Cain cannot be missed.’
Cain is the most troublesome existence in Indus.
First of all, the fact that she can create dummies that look exactly like her is very troublesome.
It’s not like dolls but a collection of spiders that cunningly pretend to be humans. People who are not sensitive enough can’t distinguish them from real humans.
But she must be nearby for sure. To control the dummy and numerous spiders, she must be close.
‘Good.’
From now on, it’s not Constel’s operation.
It’s the start of my operation.